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A rookie NYPD cop (50 Cent) is taken under the wing of his late-father's former partner, a cop named Sarcone (Robert De Niro) who lords over a gang of dirty cops working as the henchmen of a drug lord.

IS IT A GOOD MOVIE?

FREELANCERS is yet another terrible offering from Robert De Niro. Poor guy- ten years ago, who would have thought he'd be reduced to a DTV yarn starring 50 Cent- who also produces (in fact- he's got a number of big productions coming out- including the John Cusack-Nicolas Cage starrer FROZEN GROUND). I suppose this might have originally been pegged for a theatrical release, but watching it, it feels very low-rent and DTV, telling an incredibly two-dimensional dirty-cop drama, the likes of which we've seen over and over.

To his credit, 50 Cent seems to be trying to give a good performance- although notice I said trying, as that and succeeding are not the same thing. He's done no favours by the script- which tries hard to be gritty in the vein of THE WIRE or THE SHIELD, but comes off as a simplistic imitation. De Niro more or less just chews the scenery in his handful of scenes, including a howler where he commands 50 Cent to snort a line of cocaine (screaming “SNORT THAT LINE”). He plays his crooked cop in such a two-dimensionally evil way that all he's missing is a tail and a pitch-fork.

Still, he comes off remarkably well compared to poor Forest Whitaker, who embarrasses himself as 50's coke-addled training officer. He's way, way, WAAAAAYYYY over the top, constantly snorting lines, and putting his fingers in his mouth. It would be funny if it weren't for the fact that Whitaker deserves so much more.

Cougar-rific Dana Delany pops up in a tiny role- looking sexy as ever (she was one of my first crushes, thanks to the constant running of EXIT TO EDEN on cable when I was younger). A couple of WIRE vets, including the great Andre Royo as 50's dad, show up- in what I suppose was an effort to give this a little cred. Doesn't work though.

THE EXTRAS

As far as extras go, 50 Cent and director Jessy Torrero provide a commentary track. There's also some deleted scenes (the whole movie should have been a deleted scene) and some interviews with the cast and crew.

FINAL DIAGNOSIS

Really, FREELANCERS is an embarrassment for all involved, as this is just DTV crap and nothing more. It's a sad comedown for one of our greatest actors (De Niro folks, not 50) but hopefully he'll find something worthy of him.